daily life
it’s never boring
For those who are not on night guard duty, days at UltraHorse Towers usually begin just after sunrise. Most of the fighters get out of bed in the sleeping areas of their gang headquarters, but some like to sleep out in the jungle. Most of the other residents, such as the numerous service personnel, the laboratory scientists, and the security staff all live in apartments in the lower floors of the towers. A small group of individuals, including Bobby Jack and Oliver, the sanctioned war correspondent, and any visiting UltraHorse executives, live in more luxurious accommodations in the highest levels of the towers, and these individuals all generally rise with the rest of the community. Many individuals have their own personal morning routines, but a large percentage of the community participate in either the group jogging sessions, the Tai Chi exercises on the soccer field, or the sunrise Yoga practiced inside the stadium.
Breakfast for the community is mostly eaten in the huge, multi-kitchen, multi-room cafeteria that is located on the circular mezzanine level that overlooks the large four-story tall foyer at the entrance to UltraHorse Towers. The gangs sometimes eat together with their teammates, but there is also a lot of general fraternizing in the community, and gang members often eat breakfast with fighters from the other gangs, and some of the fighters eat all of their meals with various staff members in the Jungle Room, which is halfway under the wide waterfall that falls down from the koi pond lounge on the fourth floor of the western tower.
As soon as the early morning routines are out of the way, the whole complex starts to buzz with activity related to the missions and combats planned for the day. Gang members visit the Mission Agent to get their mission assignments for the day, and all of the support crews get weapons and equipment prepared for the upcoming battles. Even the scientists are involved as they prep the latest crystal experiments, and the cafeteria staff keep themselves busy preparing bag lunches for those fighters who will not return to the complex for the mid-day meal.
As soon as the various gangs and fighters are assembled at the appropriate launch areas and sent off to their missions, the maintenance crews start cleaning the facilities, mowing the lawns, washing the innumerable windows, and sorting out the laundry from the previous day. The head scientist usually spends mid-mornings in the Crystal Laboratory, Bobby Jack checks in with the various departments in his handgun factory, and tryouts for new aspiring fighters are administered by UltraHorse functionaries.
One of the most important groups who launch into their daily operations is the crystal power processing plant operating crew. These engineers process the crystals as they are harvested throughout the day, and they use the plant to produce all the electrical energy that the large complex consumes. The system was home-made, by the General’s head scientist and his colleagues, and it works surprisingly well. The only problem is that a great deal of new crystals are needed every day, so supplies are watched closely, and in some rare cases early on, some services in the compound were been suspended temporarily to conserve the dwindling supply of energy. Some portion of the harvested crystals goes not towards power, but to specifically support some of UltraHorse's charitable activities. For example, it is not unusual for a gang of fighters to contribute their crystals to the construction and delivery of something like a new crystal powered pump to a needy community somewhere.
Combat and return-to-base activities cycle forward throughout the rest of the day, with returning combatants delivering their harvested crystals and other booty to the agents and receiving their prizes and rank rewards before heading back out to whatever assignments they have on their schedules. Any celebrations and ceremonies for promotions, group ribbons and particularly notable victories are postponed until the end of the day's fighting.
The postponement of celebrations and ceremonies should not be taken as an indication that combatants are casual about their ability to rise in the ranks of UltraHorse's hierarchy. Nothing could be further from the truth, and great value is placed upon any rise in rank. Those who have achieved higher ranks are not only more highly respected among the community, they are also given notable rewards and prizes for having achieved such distinctions.
The maintenance of the UltraHorse Towers complex is an arduous task in itself, and a small army of mechanics, technicians, janitors, gardeners, window-washers, and fabricators keep the numerous facilities of the complex in top condition. Although great progress has already been made by the Erythrium Laboratory in researching new uses for the crystals, new applications have so far been limited to weapons development, energy production, and a medical applications. This means that the laundry, the dish-washing, the toilet cleaning and all the other innumerable mundane tasks are still done the old-fashioned way. There are no property owners or rental agents in the complex, and all property is owned by the community and administered by UltraHorse.
The closest villages to the UltraHorse Towers complex are many hours away, and while there are occasionally a few jungle dwelling tribes that stumble upon the complex during hunting expeditions, contact with the outside world is almost non-existent. Curious individuals who have lost their way in the dense jungles while attempting to reach the legendary compound are usually detected by the extensive perimeter surveillance systems in the tower security headquarters, and humanitarian rescue missions are launched to retrieve those individuals. Those who are deemed worthy to stay in the complex are allowed to remain, while undesirables are regularly sent back to wherever they came from, and left with no means of identifying the location of the secret UltraHorse Towers compound other than the knowledge that "It's out there somewhere."
The most mysterious among many mysterious and yet-to-be fully explored locations in the compound might be the underground facilities where UltraHorse has allowed the General and his expatriate army to manage the Erythrium storage. Not many visitors are allowed in this area, and the majority of the residents of the community have never ventured into the areas beneath the hole in the lagoon. Most of the General's forces, scientists and co-expatriates live and work among the general population of the complex, and his officers do attend strategy meetings regularly in the UltraHorse Towers Combat Strategy office.